The American involvement in the Ukrainian imbroglio has a number of causes, which include the significant role of the neoconservatives. In a series of articles, investigative journalist Robert Parry has made an insightful analysis of this neocon role, linking it to their opposition to Obama’s recent “foreign policy that relies heavily on cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin to tamp down confrontations in hot spots such as Iran and Syria cooperation.” That approach toward Israel’s enemies has been staunchly opposed as too soft by Israel and the Israel lobby in the United States, of which the neocons are a leading hard-line element.

Parry’s analysis of the Ukraine crisis better accounts for the facts than the mainstream’s Hitlerian Putin thesis or the position of some critics that it reflects the overall policy of the U.S. government to weaken Russia and expand the American empire. Furthermore, a significant unmentioned aspect of the Ukrainian affair is the irony-rich role of Israel, America’s purported close ally, which has not been critical of Russia. In fact, Israel is actually improving its relationship with Russia and stands to benefit from the crisis.Neocons had been using the democracy card against Putin’s Russia for some time, as they had previously done against the Soviet Union, because of Putin’s hostility to the Russian liberals, many of whom happened to be Jewish and pro-Israel, and also because of Russia’s support for Israel’s major enemies — Iran and Syria.